On our way home from the Black Market (see post below), a fight broke out in the car park.

This is what happened:

A guy was trying to reverse his car up an embankment. Mongolians are not known for their superior nor safe driving skills. So he basically stuffed it up so badly that he hit another car.

The guy from said hit car thought it would be a good idea to stand in front of his car.. ie. in the line of poor parking man. A precarious move, if ever I’ve seen one.

Poor parking man tried to park for the third time, and failed again. But failed so badly that he actually had pinned precarious move man between the two cars.

The best decision poor parking man ever made was to give up.

As he drove away, precarious move man kicked the tyre on the car of poor parking man.

The worst decision poor parking man ever made was to slam on his brakes and get out of the car so he could express his feelings to precarious move man. Maybe we should just call him ‘dickhead’, as in… ‘Really dickhead, you’re going to take him on? Because he’s TWICE THE SIZE YOU!!!’…

So that’s pretty much how it started. We had front row seats to this spectacular-spectacular. We weren’t going anywhere – the cars were blocked in. And we caught about the last four minutes on video. It had already been going about 5 minutes by the time it starts.

Now, the best thing about the video is the commentary. You can take the bogan out of Australia, but you can’t take the bogan out of me. Seriously, I come out with some crackers… ‘awww yeah, it’s a scrag fight!’ or ‘awww, he took him down’.

Although I think my favourite bit is, toward the end of the video, I say: ‘oh, I shoulda got it all on video’. Doh! How was I to know Kai was filming? I was trying to figure out how I could join in this real-life rumble!

At the beginning of the video you can hear the honking... yep, all these cars were getting a little annoyed that they couldn't get out!

Although the few times I have been there, I have seen neither a bunny, nor a dodgy tattoo parlour operating out of a portaloo… so in other words, it’s not quite as good.

I suppose, to be fair, the bunnies and the tats could be lurking there somewhere. Not only is this market huge, it is also completely outdoors. Which translates to, ‘get what you need, and get the eff out of there before you are frozen solid’.

And, for the benefit of my loyal readers, I risked frost bite by taking off my mittens so I could get these photos for you. Do you know how long it takes to type these posts with only one finger left?

Anyone for a couch?

Ridiculous temperatures aside, check out that blue sky!

Kai was in heaven - the hardware section... lots of hacksaws and other sheep chopping tools.

THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS STRONG GRAPHIC CONTENT.
No really, it does, and I strongly advise you don’t read it if you are vegetarian or have a weak stomach. My intent is not to offend people. So please, do what you will with this information, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you… ok?!

* * *

I suspect we will find ourselves saying ‘Well, we are in Mongolia’ quite a bit during our time here.

Like the time I put the call out to neighbours to see if they had a hacksaw we could borrow… so we could carve up the whole lamb we’d purchased for about $60 that was now on our kitchen table.

I’m not sure if this guy’s jacket was the official Mongolian Wrestling team uniform. But considering my Mongolian is so poor, and the only way to confirm is if I were to mime being a wrestler, I decided not to ask.

Moving around a lot can sometimes be a drag. But when I think of all the interesting / awesome people I’ve met, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Like this guy (actually, I’ve not met him. But I know his mum, so I’m really hoping that two degrees of separation still counts as being cool by association).

Ashley’s story is one of the best… no strike that, THE best story I’ve ever heard. Now before you go getting all upset because I don’t think your story is the best, hear me out…

He ran away to join the circus.

See, I told you! Cool, right?!

The story goes something like this:

Ashley was studying at Uni and had a pretty good intern gig that was going to set him up for a life as high-flying (pun totally intended) engineer but just wasn’t feeling the love. To let off some steam after work / study, he would go hang out (I’m on a roll with these acrobatic-inspired puns) at the local acrobatics school in Freo (that would be Fremantle in Western Australia for you non-Aussies).

He was ready to throw in the towel at uni, but eventually cut his mum a deal that he would finish his degree (we’ve all been there). Which he did. But when he finished, he still wasn’t convinced that he wanted to wake up at 40 and wonder why he hadn’t become an acrobat. So he moved to Beijing, studied acrobatics, broke a lot of stuff in his body including his back, still persisted and at 25 is now performing in Brazil.

Even if you put aside all of the cool circus stuff, the fact that he had the courage and determination to say ‘screw it, I’m going to change course, work bloody hard and see what happens’ is impressive in its own right.

Now you’ve read the story, watch the video (which is of him in his first acrobatic competition – oh, and he WON!) – and I think you’ll agree:

BEST. STORY. EVER.

PS. Go check out his mum’s blog – her name is Susie, and she’s pretty cool too!

I’ve become quite aware of what I like in a gym. A variety of classes, solid equipment, a spacious free-weights area, grunt-free zones, clean showers. Oh, and good looking staff members help too… you know, just the basics.

But I scrunched up my check list and threw it out the window when I walked into my new gym… a drinks fridge with Heineken and Tiger beer? Oh hell yes! Where do I sign up?!